Big Sky, Montana
January 17-23, 2003

My trip to Big Sky was quite the adventure.  The following pictures will depict just some of the story.

(L to R) Natalie, Andy, Eric, Mike, Kevin, Me, Kevin, Craig, Dan, Jodie
(Not Pictured, Becky)

First, it started with 11 friends in a very nice and spacious condo.  The condo was also equipped with a hot tub.

As I was one of the last people to arrive on Friday night, I ended up in the bunk room.  I ended up on the bottom bunk which had about 3 feet of clearance between the mattress and the top bunk.  This made it interesting trying to roll over in the middle of the night.  Let's just say that I hit the top bunk more than once.

The rest of the house was very nice and accommodating.

And had a great view.

We had 5 days of skiing planned (Saturday thru Wednesday).  The temperature every day started around 20 degrees and got into the 30s.  I never had to wear my thermals which surprised me.  I had expected bitterly cold skiing (although this was not a disappointment).  The first morning, the sun was out and the sky was clear.  We set out to see what Big Sky had to offer.  What we found was a lot of great cruiser runs and a lot of visible rocks.  Not a bad start to a long vacation.

On day 2, the skies got cloudy but we still got a good day of skiing in.  We found a fun drop off run and decided to take some rapid fire pictures.  Of course, we looked really smooth :).  

First, Eric (not too bad):

Then Kevin (oops):

Then Mike (watch out for the cameraman, Mike):

But we all made it down safely.  This ended up being one of our favorite runs.  After the drop off, it turned into a very nice mogul and powder run.

That night, we had a little bit to drink and decided it was time to try sledding.  One problem.  No sleds.  But wait, we have this air mattress and a baking pan (and a bottle Pam).  Problem solved :).  Well, the hill was about 100 feet long at a 60-70 degree angle.  At the bottom, was a cattrack (8 ft wide flat spot) followed by a 5 foot drop off before you run into a snow fence.  Since it was dark out, I wasn't able to get many action shots but you can probably get the idea from these pictures what happened.

As I stated before, there were a lot of rocks visible.  I had to get my skis fixed after 2 days of skiing over some of these rocks so I got to rent skis for a day.  I choose dual tips (skis with curved tips on both ends so you can go backwards).  They were a fun experience.  I think I would buy them if I needed to get new skis.  It started to snow on Monday and didn't stop until Wednesday morning.

Unfortunately, the sun didn't come back out but the conditions were excellent.  Most of the rocks were covered up and there was a lot of powder.

So, the last day here.  Let's get all the skiing in we can, right?  Well, that was the plan until we went up the Challenger lift just before lunch time.  The Challenger lift only serviced double black diamond runs.  We had been up there once before earlier in the week and there were a lot of rocks so it took us a while to get down.  Also, this trail was the main reason that I needed to get my skis fixed earlier in the week.  This time, the snow was covering most of the rocks.  There were plenty of snowy trails to choose from.  I choose the run called Big Rock Tongue.  This should have been my first clue that it wasn't a good idea.  So, down I started.  I was doing well, traversing where I needed, carving down at other places.  I got about 100 feet down and stopped to pick a good line.  I saw to patches of exposed rock about 12 feet apart with snow between them.  Looked like a good place to go.  So, as I'm turning back a forth, my right ski hit a rock (or something under the snow) and fell off (Not the first time, certainly not the last).  Problem was that the trail was fairly steep and my other ski was still going down hill so as I'm going forward, my right knee gets driven down into the trail.  Man, did that hurt.  I looked down and saw my pants had ripped but I was able to stand and didn't seem too hurt.  So, I put my other ski back on and continued down the slope.  When I got to the bottom, I decided that I should go inside to check on my knee.  I could tell there was some blood so I went in to check it out.  Now, our condo was about 300 yards up hill from the base.  I didn't feel like walking it so I went back up the lift and took a cruiser run down to the condo.  When I got inside, I found out it was much more serious so I went to the medical center.  Turns out that I needed 13 stitches (4 internal and 9 external) in my knee.

Not a pretty picture so click here for larger view at own risk.

The stitches come out in 10 days and there was no serious damage.  All in all, it was a great trip.  Montana is a very beautiful state and the snow conditions were excellent (other than the rocks).  I have until March before I have to ski again and I'm already looking forward to it.